Season's greetings from the PA Turnpike: Rate increase!

Pennsylvania Turnpike officials remind us that their annual rate increase is coming down the road fast, with prices set to rise at 12:01 a.m. Sunday, Jan. 5.

The trend of jacking up the tolls much higher for cash customers compared to E-ZPass payments will continue.

The official news release from the Turnpike Commission follows, but this is basically what it will mean for many Lehigh Valley motorists beginning Saturday night (technically, early Sunday morning). The 37-mile trip between the Mid-County and Lehigh Valley interchanges will cost $4.50 in cash, versus $3.10 with E-ZPass, an increase of 50 cents for cash customers and 6 cents with electronic payment. The 18.5-mile span between Lehigh Valley and Mahoning Valley (Lehighton) will cost cash customers $2.60, up from 2.30, while the E-ZPass charge will be $1.72, up from $1.69.

The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission (PTC) reminds motorists that toll rates will increase Jan. 5 by 12 percent for cash customers and 2 percent for E-ZPass customers. The new rates take effect at 12:01 a.m. this Sunday. With the increase, E-ZPass customers, who today see about a 25-percent savings on tolls, will save at least 35 percent compared to cash.

Turnpike tolls are increased each year to support ground-transportation needs and enhance traveler safety across the state. These annual increases are vital in generating revenues that enable the PTC to help improve the safety and efficiency of the commonwealth’s roadways, bridges and transit systems. New revenues are necessary to:

continue to effectively and efficiently maintain and operate the 550-mile Pennsylvania Turnpike system;

remain focused on efforts to expand, modernize and widen the Pennsylvania Turnpike, parts of which are nearly 75 years old; and

supply needed funding to the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) for investment in off-turnpike road and bridge improvements as well as in public transit.

A transportation-funding law known as Act 89 lowered the amount of funding that the PTC provides to PennDOT under Act 44 of 2007. With the new law, the PTC’s annual payments to PennDOT will remain at $450 million for the next eight years — through June of 2022. But, starting in fiscal year 2023, the payments drop to $50 million per year until the Act 44 agreement ends in 2057.

“We’re grateful to the general assembly and Governor Corbett for the long-term financial relief the PTC saw under Act 89,” said Turnpike CEO Mark Compton. “However, it does not erase our debt or end our current Act-44 funding obligation. As a result, the PTC will need to continue to increase tolls annually for the foreseeable future.”

The PTC has transferred almost $4.1 billion to PennDOT in the last six years to meet Act 44 obligations, and it has incurred almost $4.6 billion in bond debt since 2007 to finance those payments. Although the end result of Act 89 is that the PTC’s total obligation to PennDOT over the 50-year term of Act 44 is cut significantly, from $24 billion to $8 billion, it does not indicate an end to the commission’s financial responsibility to the commonwealth.

The toll increase is also essential to fund the Turnpike’s own capital plan, focused largely on total reconstruction and widening projects in which the highway is completely rebuilt from the ground up and expanded from four to six lanes. So far the commission has rebuilt more than 100 miles of its system at an average cost of roughly $20 million per mile.

The Turnpike Commission hopes to increase E-ZPass enrollment because it’s less costly to process an electronic transaction compared to a cash transaction. The PTC began offering lower rates to E-ZPass users starting in January 2011. Today, more than 70 percent of Pennsylvania Turnpike travelers use E-ZPass.

Many customers get E-ZPass online at www.paturnpike.com or by calling 1-877-PENN-PASS (1-877-736-6727). Customers can also buy an E-ZPass GoPak at more than 300 retailers across the state, including most AAA offices and at certain stores in these chains: Acme, Giant Eagle and GetGo, Karns, Walmart, Wegmans and coming soon to the Sunoco A-Plus convenience stores at all Pennsylvania Turnpike service plazas. The E-ZPass GoPak allows travelers to obtain a transponder that is already activated and can be used immediately.

It costs $38 to purchase an E-ZPass if using a credit or debit card to set up an auto-replenishment account; the cost includes a $35 toll balance plus a $3 annual fee. In addition, E-ZPass retailers charge a one-time convenience fee (there is no convenience fee for those who join online or by phone). For a comprehensive list of E-ZPass retail locations, visit www.paturnpike.com/ezpass .

A Pennsylvania Turnpike E-ZPass can be used on any toll facility where the purple-and-white logo is shown. Presently, there are 25 E-ZPass agencies in 15 states, largely in the Northeastern U.S., and more than 24 million E-ZPass transponders in use on toll roads, bridges and tunnels nationwide.

Take a peek inside a traffic-singal control box

Technicians must have been tweaking the phasing of the traffic signals where the Route 22 eastbound off-ramp meets MacArthur Road in Whitehall Township this morning, so I took a quick photo of the electronic equipment inside the aluminum cabinet, where some of the components carry the brand name Peek.

Sure seems like a Hummer's worth of computing capability required just to tell traffic lights when to turn red, yellow or green.

Merry Christmas, happy holidays, happy new year, fellow warriors!

Thanks for your emails and your interest this year, folks. Please keep the interesting and thoughtful questions and comments coming down the road.

In the peaceful spirit of the season, I relate this comment from Sandy Rice of Palmer Township. It's a response to my recent statement that it takes a conscious effort to become a laid-back driver in this hectic culture, and that I've been working at it, I think with partial success, for the last few years. I like the approach, and I recommend it.

From Sandy:

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"Thank you for the reminder to ease up when driving.

My father once told me that the definition of 'split second' is the time between when the light turns green and the guy behind you honks his horn. I try to remember that when I'm at the wheel.

Did 'Santa's sleigh' really have to block traffic during 'Operation Santa' in Whitehall?

"Operation Santa" is a great holiday tradition practiced by Whitehall Fire Department volunteers. I thought it could have been handled a little bit better this year in one respect: I happened to get stuck on Jefferson Street in the Fullerton section, just west of ultra-busy Third Street, for 20 minutes Sunday afternoon as two fire trucks and an accessory vehicle blocked access by stopping in the middle of Jefferson, with parked cars on both sides, while presents were being delivered.

After waiting for about 10 minutes as some volunteers stood about chatting with residents while others delivered goodies, the volunteers went back to the trucks and started moving, but they went only a short distance and stopped again, still blocking access in both directions. A motorist behind me backed out onto Third Street, which I thought was dangerous (I had considered doubling back, but my approach would have been to turn my car around first).

I pulled up behind the last fire truck in line, and a volunteer emerged, approaching my car.

"Can I get through?" I asked. He said something about the program, and I noted, not in an angry way, that the road was blocked. Before I had the opportunity to ask whether the trucks could be moved ahead to what appeared to be open parking spaces on the right side of westbound Jefferson, where they could have been parked at curbside to provide access, the volunteer said curtly, "There are plenty of other streets. We're delivering presents to the kids here. If you have a problem with that, call the township."

He wasn't rude about it, exactly, but he was so anxious to express his indignation at my mere questioning of the procedure that I realized further discussion would be futile. I turned my car around went back to jammed-up Grape Street, which I was trying to avoid in the first place (I had come from nearby Catasauqua Road).

No, it wasn't a crisis. But I don't think it was necessary, either. And I think it raised the danger level on the roadway, at least to some degree -- an ironic twist for a program run by a respected emergency-response organization.

Once again, it's a wonderful program, and I trust it will continue for many years to come. But doing a good deed doesn't negate the need for reasonably careful planning. I just think this aspect could have been handled better: There was no need to block that block of Jefferson Street, especially at 3 p.m. on the Sunday preceeding Christmas. I hope this advice is taken in the spirit in which it's meant: as mild criticism of the most constructive kind.

Morning Call Reporter and Columnist Dan Hartzell is The Road Warrior, defending the drivers of the Lehigh Valley and the roads on which they drive. E-mail questions about transportation in the Lehigh Valley and beyond to hartzell@mcall.com.